Tim introduced me to speedtest.net and showed how even though he gets good performance for local Auckland links his Slingshot connection is reduced to a slow trickle when trying to connect overseas. (Tim has provided the numbers to back this up.)

So, back at home I’ve tried this out with my Orcon connection, but I’m kind of surprised by the results. I have a amazing connection speed of 3.63 Mb/s with Salekhard on the Artic Circle in Russia? Better even than the 3.24 Mb/s to WorldxChange here in Auckland? Connection speeds to San Jose, Johannesburg, and Sydney are pretty good, but the connection to Lisbon is a slacker at 0.76 Mb/s. Can anyone explain what’s going on in Salekhard? What are your speeds like?

I’ve been using my old ADSL router for my connection, but I also have a ADSL2+ router from Orcon which I will try next and then update this blog.

Results:

update: Changing over to the Orcon supplied ADSL2+ router was definitely worthwhile. Much faster for the sites nearby (Auckland, Sydney, San Jose), but sites far away are actually slower (Salekhard, Johannesburg). But thinking about Salekard and J’burg it may have just been the time of day when I tested them (early afternoon NZ time, early morning their time) there wasn’t much other traffic? Connection to Lisbon is still awful.

Finally got my wireless working here too.